his horses paying of certain Cows or a rate for them quae dari solebant pro capitibus Utlagatorum to redeem the forfeituâ—e of Outlaws Gavel or Rent-timber for the Repair of the Lords house Gavel Dung to carry his Dung Horse or Foot Average carrying of the Lords Corn to Markets and Fairs or of his domestique utensils Smith-land for doing the Smiths work Gavel-erth for tâ—lling some part of the Ground Gavel Rip to help to reap their Corn by one or more dayes Gavel Rod to help to make so many Pearches of Hedge Gavel Swine for feeding of Swine in the Lords Woods Carropera to work with their Carts or Carriages Ale-silver in the City of London Were Gavel in respect of Wears and Kiddles to catch Fish besides which some have not long ago valued in the sale of their Manors many Boons Presents and New-years-gifts and other Retributions yearly given to Landlords or Lords of Manors in lieu of their Pourveyance who paying for it one to another do receive and take Fines incertain at farre greater rates then antiently they were and many times so unreasonably as the King in his Superiour Courts of Justice is many times enforced to regulate and reduce them to a moderation and can also receive many other small yearly payments paid by Tenants in acknowledgement of favours or help received or to be received and demand and receive Quit-rents for Common Fines of some Hundreds and for Fines pro non pulchre placitando or pleading in their Courts so fair as they ought prohibited to be taken by several Statutes made in the reigns of King Henry the 3 d. and Edward the Third receive in some places as in the Counties of Cumberland Westmerland and some other Northern Counties a 20 penny Fine and in Wales a Payment or Oblation called Mises upon the death or change of every Landlord and be at the same time unwilling that the King should have any retributions or acknowledgements for one hundred to one favours and helps not seldome but very often nor to some or a few particular men but to very many and the universality of all his Subjects Be well contented that he should have no betteâ— a Bargain to release their Duties of Tenures in Capite Knight-service and Pourveyance which would have yielded and saved him at least Two hundred thousand pounds per annum besides the vast yearly charge of a great part of his Guards much whereof might be spared if he had as his Royal Progenitors had the benefit support and accommodation of Tenures in Capite and by Knights-service which were so greatly very necessary in the honour and incidents thereof to the exercise of a just and well regulated Monarchy and Royall Governments and more advantagious then the decaying and every day diminishing Revenue of that Moyety of the Excise which half or moiety from the time of the granting thereof untill the last year did yearly yield unto him but One hundred thousand and ten pounds or thereabouts and for this last year but One hundred thirty and three thousand pounds Sterling or thereabouts out of which the Salaries allowanâ—â— unto the Commissioners Auditors and Surveyors c. and many other defalcations are to be deducted attended with the daily discontents of the Common people and as a Fine and Income for that so greatly prejudiciall and inconvenient Bargain release and abate unto the people more then a Million and a half Sterling mony due unto him for the Arrears of the profits of his Wardships and Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service and for the Arrears of his Pourveyance after the rate of Thirty five thousand pounds per annum charges to the people six hundred and fifty thousand pounds Sterling and if the charge thereof shall be deemed to amount unto Fifty thousand pounds per annum may without any stretching of the accompt be very justly reckoned to be no less then Nine hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling And take notwithstanding as his blessed Father did the profits of his Wards after a tenth part of the true yearly value of the Lands and his Ayds to make his eldest Son a Knight and to marry his eldest Daughter which the Socage Tenures are likewise obliged unto at a very low and easie proportion very many of his Reliefs after the rate which the value and Rent of Lands were at four hundred years agoe now that they exceed it Fifteen or Twenty times more in value then they were then his Subsidies and Fifteens secundum antiquam taxationem after the old and long ago accustomed old rates with considerations and abatements to be made in respect of Debts Children and weakness of Estates when as the rates in every Parish for the maintenance of the Poor mending of High-wayes repairing the Church payment of Tythes for Pasâ—ure-grounâ—s oâ— upon any other their Parochiall Duties or occasions are made and layd by the people themselves and Justices of Peace by the Pound rate as they call it and to the utmost yearly value and improvement or very near it Receive his First-fruits and Tenths at great undervalues Prae-fines Post-fines Lycenses and Pardons of Alienation at less then a Tenth Take no more for the Fees of his Seals in Chancery and the Courts of Kings Bench and Common Pleas then as they were in the Reign of King Edward the Third now that every peny which was then is more in value then three and for the originall and Judiciall Writs in Wales no more then they were in he 34 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth his Fines upon Formedons and Reall Actions his Customes inward and outward at gentle and undervalued rates allowing the Merchants notwithstanding a Twelfth part of their Wines a Fifth of all other Commodities imported and a Tenth of all that is exported most of which particulars in his so daily accustomed and continued favours seperately and singly considered would either out-goe or come very near up unto the charges which the Kingdom did yearly expend and disburse for or towards the Royall Pourveyance Allowâ— three or four pounds in every Pipe of Wine for Lekage takes for his prisage of Wines brought into London for his two Pipes of Wine one before and another behind the Mast in every Ship of every Freeman being an Housekeeper of that large and largely privileged City but seven pounds ten shillings for every Pipe of Wine which is seldome less worth if it be Sack then thirty pound a Pipe or four and twenty pounds a Pipe if it be Claret And giveâ— Bâ—lls of Store to multitudes which have occasion to pass or repass which is not seldome into or out of the parts beyond the Seas for their Trunks and other necessaries to be Custome-free Allows and permits the Dukes Marquesses and 〈◊〉 to enjoy their Creation money towards the supportation of their honour and they as well as the rest of the Nobility and all or many of the Gentry to enjoy great quantities of
those that adhaered unto him and having destroyed the Sheep can now as if they were innocent appear in Sheeps clothing enforce those that rebelled against him and his Royall Father to compound as King H. 3. did his Rebellious People all but the unhappy Robert Ferrers Earl of Derby the Heirs of Simon de Mountfort Earl of Leicester and some few others for their pardons or redemption of their forfeited Lands by his Commission or dictum de Kenelworth according to the nature of their several Delinquencies so as the greatest Fines should not exceed five years and the lowest not be less then two years of the then true yearly value of their Lands and Estates Neither as the late pretended Parliament and Oliverian Tormentors of all that were good did in a more severe manner when they forfeited and would not permit many of the Loyall Party at all to compound and constrained the rest to compound for a supposed fighting against the King when it was well known that they did really fight and suffer for him made them to pay great and excessive Fines some according to a third and others a half of the full yearly value of their Lands and Estates and others in what arbitrary way they pleased for their personal Estates and moneyes due unto them And after they had proceeded so farre in the ruining of them and granted them a slender Act of Oblivion choaked with a great many of Provisos did upon the loyall Attempts of some of them to recall their King and Liberties Decimate and make those also that had not therein offended their Masterships of Sin and Rebellion to pay and compound for a Tenth of their Estates as if Loyalty had been a sin and like that of Adam the first Inhabitant in the world been to be punished in all the loyall Party and their Generations squeese their Estates or require any Contributions or Summes of money of them more then of all the Loyall Party towards the payment of many hundred thousand pounds sterling in Arrear to themselves and the Souldiers which had been before imployed to ruine him when after his most happy Restauration he was contented for the quiet and welfare of the Nation to pay it out of his own Revenues the publick and generall Contributions Nor did in his Act of Parliament for a generall Pardon and Indempnity insert any Proviso for their good adhaering towards him and his Royall Crown and dignity or compel them as is usually done in cases of Pardons for Felony or Manslaughter to find Sureties for their better behaviour towards him and his People But gave way unto his extraordinary mercy and compassion to a People who in the Career of their Sins Rebellion and Rapine could not find the way to pity the sad condition of their Souls Bodies and Estates and in all that concerned the good and welfare of his People was willing to imitate and remember that Maxime of his blessed father the Martyr that the Peoples Liberties did strengthen the Kings Prerogative and that the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties And was lately heard to say that he would not if he might be absolute or not restrained in many things by the Laws which he or his Royall Progenitors had made or granted that the Laws of England were the bâ—st Laws in the world that if the wisest men in the world had been appointed to make Laws they could have made no better and that if they had not been made he would most willingly make the same again How little would be gained to the people by denying him the Pourveyance or Compositions for them who hath a just most antient and legall right to those their small Retributions if he should restrain the bitings and oppression of their Markets and Merchandize or by his removing his Residence and Courts of Justice from Westminster make London and her twelve adjacent Counties viz. Middlesex Kent Surrey Sussex Southampton Essex Hertford Bedford Cambridge Huntington Buckingham and Northamptonshires to loose more then forty times as much every year by it Although he should not abate or bring down the rates of Rents and Provisions so low as King Edward the Sixth did intend to do when to satisfie some of the discontented Commons and People in Armes and Rebellion against him he did undertake that there should be an Act of Parliament in the next ensuing Parliament to lessen and reduce the Rents of Lands scarce half so high and unreasonable as now they are to what they had been forty years before And how unequal it would be that the People should by infringing of the Lawes and by the improvement and high rack of their Lands and Commodities take advantage of their own doing of wrong unto others and that the Citizens of London and the Inhabitants of the twelve adjacent Counties should desire his Residence to be so near his Chamber of London and make him by the taking away of his Pourveyance so great a looser by it when if like the Sun in the Firmament he should diffuse and carry his light and heat to all the parts of his Kingdom and not make London and its neighbouâ—ing Counties an East or West-Indies and the rest of the Kingdome to be as a Greenland either by removing his Courts and Residence to Worcester or Ludlow towards Wales or to York the People of London and the neighbouring Counties would as soon lament his absence and removall as he would find the ease and benefit of it as his Royall Father King Charles the Martyr did in the year 1640 when he was at Newcastle with his Court and Army in the Borders of Scotland where the rate or price which he allowed at London for the Provisions of his Houshold according to the Compositions for the Pourveyance appeared to be so much above the Market rates as the People brought it in so plentifully as he was enforced by his Proclamation to forbid the bringing in of such an overplus And may to their cost hereafter believe that they shal be as little gainers by that small yearly sum of mony which they do but think they shall save by the not paying the Compositions for the Pourveyance or by the Kings acquitall of it as they have been or may be in his release of his Tenures in Capite and by Knights service when they dream of that which may be imagined to be a benefit but when they are waking will never be found to be so and will in the yearly expence or accidents of the better and richer part of the People in the charges of finding Offices defraying the Fees of Escheators and Feodaries many Writs Process and Suits in that which was the Court of Wards and Liveries and their payment of Rents Compositions for Wardships will not be enough to satisfie or set against the very many great oppressions mischiefs and inconveniences which since the taking away of that Court and the Tenures in Capite and by Knights service have
fallen upon the Orphans or fatherless Children of that part of the People and their Estates when the Wolves shall be made the Keepers of the Lambs and every indigent or wastfull father in Law shall be a Guardian to those whose Estates he makes it his business to spend and ruine or to transferre upon his own Children and the charge and trouble of Petitions at the Councell Board or more tedious Suits in Chancery to be relieved against them the pay of more Life-guards or a small standing Army to keep the People within the bounds of their duty and secure good Subjects from the mischief intended by the bad frequent Musters of the Trained Bands more then formerly and of an Army to be hired upon an occasion of an Invasion or the transferring the sedem belli or miseries of warre into an Enemies Country much whereof would not have needed to be if the Tenures in Capite and by Knight-service those stronger Towers and Forts of our David those Horsemen and Charriots of our Israel and alwayes ready Garrisons composed of the best and worthiest men of our Nation not hirelings taken out of the Vulgus nor unlettered unskilfull and uncivilized nor rude or debauched part of the people but of those who would fight tanquam pro aris focis as they and their worthy Ancestors ever used to do for the good and honour of their King and Country and the preservation of their own Families as being obliged unto it by the strongest tyes and obligations of law and gratitude which ever were or could be laid upon the fortunes Estates Souls and Bodies of men that would have a care but of either of them Or to put in the Ballance against the benefits which they had in the preservation of their Woods recording their discents and titles to their Lands and many a Deed and Evidence which would otherwise have been lost or not easie to be found and the help and ayd which their heirs in their infancies have never failed of in all their Suits and Concernments And the seldome abuses of some naughty Pourveyors and the complaints thereby do not any thing neer amount unto the immense gains of the people of some millions sterling per annum in their vast improvements of their Lands and Estates by the rack and rise of rents enhaunce of Servants and Labourers wages and all commodities in all parts of the Kingdome before and since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the Compositions for the Pourveyance were made and agreed upon may seem but a very small yearly Retribution to the King or his Royall Progenitors for permitting so much as shall be reasonable of it And the People of England might better allow him those small and legall advantages which are and will be as much for publique good as his own then they do themselves in many of their own affairs one with another in many of their particular private ends advantages wherein the will and bequests oâ— the dead their Hospitalls Legacies or Gifts to charitable uses are not nor have been so well managed as they ought to be As may be instanced in those multitudes of charitable Legacies or Gifts in lands originally cut out and proportioned to the maintenance of certain numbers of poor or for some particular uses which by the increase and improvement of Rents before and since the dissolution of the Abbies Religious Houses and Hospitals did very much surmount the proportions which were at the first allowed or intended for them And with more Reason and Justice then the City of London and many of their Guilds and Fraternities do now enjoy divers Lands which were given for Lamps and other superstitious uses for which they compounded by order of the Councell Board with King Edward the Sixth for twenty thousand pounds and more then that which that and many other Cities and Towns do take and receive for Tolls which being many times only granted for years or upon some temporary occasions are since kept and retained as rights besides many Gifts and Charitable Uses since the dissolution of the Abbies and Religious Houses amounting to a very great yearly value which by the improvement and rise of Rents beyond the proportion of the Gifts or the intention of the Givers have been either conveyed by Jâ—yntures or leases to wives or children or much of the overplus which came by the improvement or concealed Charitable Uses converted by the Governours of many a City and Town Corporate to the maintenance of themselves the Worship of the Corporation and many a comfortable Feast and Meeting for the pretended good of the 〈◊〉 people thereof who are but seldome if at all the better for it Some of which not to mention any of greater bulk or value may appear in a few instances instead of a multitude of that kind dispeâ—sed in the Kingdom as two Closes of Land or Meadow Ground lying in the Parish of Shoreditch in the County of Middlesex given by Simon Burton Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London in the year 1579. unto St. Thomas Hospital upon condition that the Governors of the said Hospitall should yearly give unto 30 poor Persons of the said Parish on the 21 22 or 23 dayes of December for ever the summe of eight pence a piece Mr. William Hanbury Citizen and White-baker of London did by a Surrender in the year 1595. give unto Elizabeth Spearing certain Copihold Lands in Stebuâ—heath and Ratcliffe in the said County to pay the Parson and Church-wardens of the said Parish for ever to the use of the poor People there two and fifty shillings yearly which by consent of the Parish is by twelve pence every Wednesday weekly bestowed upon the Poor abroad And Mrs. Alice Hanbury Widow by her will did in the same year give unto Mr. George Spearing a Tenement in the said Parish wherein William Bridges a Taylor then dwelled upon condition that the said George Spearing his Heirs and Assignes should yearly pay to the Churchwardens of the said Parish and their Successors to the use of the poor and impotent People thirteen shillings and four pence And that whether the King be enough recompenced or not at all recompenced for his Pourveyance it would be none of the best bargains for the Subjects of England or their Posterity to exchange or take away so great and nâ—â—â—ssary a part of his Prerogative or support of Majesty as the Pourveyance or Compositions for them were which in the Parliament in the 4 th year of the Reign of King James were held to be such an inseperable Adjunct of the Crown and Imperiall dignity as not to be aliened and some few years after believed by that incomparable Sir Francis Bacon afterwards Lord Chancellor of England to be a necessary support of the Kings Table a good help and justly due unto him And the Learned both in Law and Politiquâ—s in other Nations as well as our own have told us that such Sacra
Servants and the Children Friends and Kinred of many of those which do contribute towards the Pourveyance or Compositions for them and that which is so misimployed serves instead of some other largesses allowances or connivencies which are usually in Kings Houses and whether well spent or mispent being Oblations and Offerings of duty made by the People to their Sovereign are not to be denyed or retrenched no more then the misbehaviour of the Sons of Ely with which the Almighty was so much offended would have been any just cause of the Children of Israels forbearing to bring their Offerings It being no Paradox but certain enough that those seeming but not reall grievances to the People by the Kings Prae-emption and Pourveyance or Compositions for them have no other source or originall then the rise and enhance of the Markets and all Victualls and Provisions by which all the selling and richer part of the People are ten to one more gainers by the Kings Pourveyance or Compositions for them then they can be loosers and are better able to bear it and the poorer sort of the people were less grieved when it was not taken away then they are now by the Excise of Ale Beer c. which comes in the place or pretended recompence of it that the Gentry and Landlords of the Lands in the Nation who by heating of those Lands that were cold drayning and drying of those that were wet and moist watering of such as were dry and sandy and planting of Wood and Fruit have brought their lands to a greater increase and fertility not yet come to its Acme or just height then the former ages and a thousand years knowledge or practise of our Forefathers the Inhabitants of this Nation could before this last Age or Century wherein we are now ever reach or attain unto and the Landlords of Houses Innes Taverns Shops or Stalls in London who have now by the increase of Tradesmen rather then Trade raised their rents ten or twenty to one more then what they were One hundred years agoe might in some measure or moderation have taken their advantages of the improvements of their Lands Rents Houses and Shops without such an overstretching their Rents as the Tenants where they have no Leases but at will or from year to year in some Counties of England should be enforced as many have lately been to throw up and forsake their Bargains And that all or any of that over-high racking the Rents of Lands and Houses or a supposed plenty of money which in the time of the greatest enhance and rack of rents rates and prices which ever England did see or endure is now so scarcely to be found as the universality of the people do heavily complain of the want of it and the product or consequence of that evil in a like enhance of rates and prices by the Freeholders and Copyholders who pay no rents as Farmers do and by the Tenants of the King Queen Prince or Bishops some of the hospitable and well minded Nobility and Gentry the Tenants of the Church and Colledge Lands and of Lands belonging to Cities Corporations Companies and Hospitals who have cheap and comfortable Estates and Bargains and yet do all they can to imitate them although they have no cause to do it which would be much higher If all the Copihold Estates in England and Wales were at as great a rack of rent as the Lands of the most of Farmers If all the Privileges and Rights of Common Estovers and Turbary Modus decimandi and Exemption from the payment of Tythes and Tolls were abrogated And if the King should keep the same rule and measure of high rating and racking of his Revenues certain or casuall as many Landlords do Or make our East-India Merchants pay for their licence or priviledge of trading to the East-Indies all others being excluded for one and twenty years a share or proportion amounting in the whole very near a Million sterling money as the Dutch have made their East-India Company to do could not be the only proper or efficient causes of that long-strided and swift progresse and increase of the rates and prices not only of victuals and all houshold provisions but of all manner of commodities apparel and necessaries either for use or ornament So as we shall not conclude without premisses or be thought to want a ground or foundation of an irrefragable truth that Lucifer the great Merchant and furnisher of our sins and excess and of the great and intollerable pride of all the degrees and ranks of men women children and servants in the Nation as far beyond the former ages as a Giant is to a Pigmee or Pauls Steeple in London when it was highest to the Pissing Conduit as they call it in Cheapside and the avarice of the people to maintain it together with the necessities attending their pride and vanities have been no small part of the cause of it for otherwise it would have been some difficulty to find or give a reason why we should not in England a Kingdome untill our late times of confusion of the greatest peace and plenty in Christendome be able to afford victuals and all manner of provisions for the belly and back as cheap as in France where notwithstanding the heavy oppressions and burdens of the Paysants who do fare hard and are ill clad and by reason of the frugality of most of the Gentry a Partridge may be bought for â—our pence and a Gentleman and his horse at night be very well entertaind for four shillings or as in Spain where a Bando is yearly made by the Corrigidores of every City and Place which the Civil Law doth allow and direct and our Laws of England do as to victuals also intend setting yearly the rates and prices not only of all victuals and houshold provisions for the belly and of fruit and Apples but of all Commodities as Linnen and Woollen Cloth Silk Knives Haâ—s c. where notwithstanding their continuall Warres and multitudes of heavy Taxes to mainteyn them there is a cheapness of victuals and such an absence of deceit as a child or the most ignorant way as to measure weight and prices buy and not be deceived Or as is in the same manner done at Rome Naples Florence Milan and most of the Principalities of Italy not so freed from publick Burdens as our more happy England is at this present which neither would nor could be there ever submitted unto and obeyed as it is if the pride and necessities or avarice of the Landlords and the pride of the Tenants which the Pragmatico's forbidding the pride and excess of apparel do in Spain very much eradicate were not less then ours and their frugalities more and such restrictions and reglements thereby made to be the more tolerable and contenting And those that do like it more then they should and shall be content to imploy their times in the pursuit of vanities and means to
mainteyn it and forsaking the old and good wayes and seeking gain do sacrifice unto their nets and burn incense unto their drags may have that said unto them which the Apostle St. Paul did â—n another case to the Romans what fruit have the intollerable pride and excess of the Nation and the high racking of Rents to mainteyn it brought unto those that have taken pleasure in it And they that have so much delighted in it may now if they please or at one time or another understand whether they will or no that the overmuch raising and stretching of the rents of the Lands and houses in England since an excessive pride and folly of the people is come to be so much in fashion amongst us have been no gain to the Nobility and Gentry but will be a great loss and damage unto them by that time that the wastfull and prodigall part of them have bought and furnished their Houshold provisions at the dear rates of their Tenants and others of whom they do buy them and their apparel and other the Merchandises of their follyes of the Citizens and Trades-men and not only therein bear the burthen of their own but of the intollerable pride and gallantry of the Citizens Tradesmen Mechanicks Artificers and their Wives and Children and in all that they do buy of them do contribute to the costly Pearl Neck-laces Diamond Lockets and other Jewels satten and cloth of silver Peticoats plush Gowns Embroderies Gold-lace Gorgets of threescore pounds a piece and Lace of twenty or forty pounds a yard worn by the Merchants Drapers and Mercers Wives and the Silk-Gowns Hoods Laces and over-costly Apparel of the Mechanick and Artificers Wives in their desires and ambition to live like the Nobility and Gentry when no man can tell they are any or ought to be That the enhance of all provisions of victuals brought to London out of the Countries hath made the Country people proâ—der then they should be and the City Wares and Commodities dearer then otherwise they would be and made the Citizens in the pursuit of pride and luxury run out of their wits and estates to purchase it That it was better in former times for the Artificers and Day-labourers whose more moderate expences in their â—â—veral conditions and qualities made them heretofâ—re with a fourth or fifth part of what they do now earn greater gainers by their labours then now they are and better for servants whose far lesser wages then now they will be contented with did amount unto more or as much as they do now gain by reason of their former smaller expences in clothes and apparel The Tenants and farmers lived better when they plowed their Landlords lands mowed reaped and helped in with their Harvests carried home their wood and paid small rents then they have or can do now that they are strained to the highest those labours and services coming far short if they were at the now rates to be hired or paid for of the addition which time and change of manners and customes have since made to their antient and unimproved rents That the people of England if there had been no other ground or reason for it might well have afforded to have given the King so much as they were yearly charged with the Pourveyance or Compositions for them for an acquital of more then twenty years arrears of it by the Act of Oblivion That if an estimate could be made of those Millions or summes of money sterling which the enâ—hanced prices and rates of victuals and houshold provisions did amount unto yearly since the 24th year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth and what the rise of victuals and houshold provisions have come unto yearly since the Pourveyance and Compositions for them were laid down and what it may more be stretched unto if pride and price not like Castor and Pollux to bring our Ship into the Port but to ruine it should go on in that carreer it is now in and private and particular interests more mighty and prevalent then all those imaginary monsters which Hercules is saâ—â— to have subdued and of a greater force then that Devil and his heard called Legion which our blessed Saviour did dislodge out of the man possessed with them shall be ayders and abetters of it There is no man that hath not bid defiance to his reason and understanding but will acknowledge that the people of England had better give ten times or more the yearly rate or value of the Pourveyancees or Compositions for them then endure the Impositions which they have or shall put one upon another whilest every man will seek to save himself and make his labour or commodity afford him as much as he can to recompence him for it That the unreasonable rates and prices put upon all the Kings occasions or services by Land and Sea are and will be the cause of Taxations and Assessements in times of peace three to one more then formerly And the Levies of monies to hire Souldiers and raise and maintain mercinary Armies will amount unto and charge the Publick ten or twenty to one or more than when by the help and ready ayds of Tenures in Capite and by Knight service our gallant and well-armed Nobility and Gentry could upon any occasions of warre or distress either at home or abroad be sodainly summoned and made to appear from Ireland as well as from all parts of England and Wales And so readily as King William Rufus sitting at dinner in Westminster Hall and hearing that Mayne a Town in Normandy was much distressed by a sodain Siege laid unto it by the French King and resolving in the greatness of his mind not to turn his back towards it untill he had relieved it could cause the wall to be broken down on the South side and passing towards the sea coast command his Nobility and Knights speedily to follow him That the unparrallel'd pride of almost all rancks and degrees of the people not permitted in France Spain and other Neighbour Nations brings our Forreign Trade almost to nothing by the adulterating of our Commodities and making them false and slight and causing the charges to be much more then formerly in the work and making of them pay of our Mariners and greater rates of victualling so as we being not able to make our manufactures so cheap as other Nations and making them slight and false our Trade must of necessity more and more decay and will never increase or be advanced if the Dutch were banished out of the world or ordered to trade only in the Bottom of the sea and leave all the Surface or Top unto us the cheap diet and clothing of their Common people the neat and frugall diet and the apparel of the Burgers and those that they call the Gentry giving them the advantage of under-selling us For we may be sure that there will never be cheapness of victualls or houshold provisions or good trading
again the compass of their estates and sobriety of their forefathers We may wish and pray that all the Common people were in the moderation of their Apparel Quakers as they are called that all our Market-folk Tradesmen Artificers and Servants as to the justness of their dealings and buying and selling were Quakers and that it may not be our sad and never enough to be lamented experience that as Doctor Peter Heylin well observed the afflictions of the Church of England in the Martirdomes and Persecutions of the Protestants in the Reign of Queen Mary and the restoring afterward of many Godly Divines that fleâ— from it brought 〈…〉 the Genevian Schismes and Discipline 〈…〉 since almost undone and 〈…〉 which were heretofore purpâ—sâ—ly â—own and cherished to enervate and destroy â—onaâ—chy joyned with thâ—â—ll Manners and Customes of some Neighbour Nations may not likewise by some that might be better Englishmen and his Majesties better subjects be more then should be endeavoured to be planted amongst us which being abundantly and sufficiently triâ—d to be evill did never nor will ever attain unto the reason right use goodness and perfection of our good old English Customes amongst which is and ought to be more especially ranked the honor and support of the Royall Court of England Majesty and honor of our King and Soveraign Which the Romans who would not endure any Common-wealth Competitors nor think themselves to be in any condition of safety untill they had ruined and destroyed Carthage and those Commonwealths of Achaia Athens and Sparta were so unwilling in the height of their glory their Senate Magistrates Republick should want as the Comminalty of Rome did in a popular Election deny to make Elius Tubero a most upright and just man the Nephew of L. Paulus and Sisters Sonne of the great and famous Scipio Africanus to be a Pratâ—r or Lord Chief Justice for that he being imployed by Fabius Maximus publicquely to feast or entertain in the name and at the charge of the people of Rome his Uncle Scipio Africanus in the preparing and making ready the Triclinia or Tables lectulos punicanos pellibus â—aedinis straverat had covered the Carthaginian Beds whereon the Guests were to sit or lye with Goat-skins pro Argenteis vasis samia exposuerat and instead of silver Vessels made use of Earthen which due observance of a Heathen Republique being under no obligation of any Divine Praecepts or Examples to honour their Governours or Assembly of wise men may teach us that are Christians how very necessary it will be to take more care of the Honour of our Prince then of any our own estimations or honors which for a great part of them are or have been derived from him or his most noble Ancestors and by so much the more for that the honor to be done unto him is every where to be found commanded directed exampled and encouraged in and by those sacred Registers the holy Scriptures which are to conduct us through the Red Sea of the miseries and troubles of this life to that of a blessed and everlastingly happy in the heavenly Jerusalem in the way whereunto will be no small helpers and assistants the rendring to Caesar all his dues and rights who is the protector of ours a more exact and carefull observance of Religion Laws of nature and Nations right reason our Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy and the love and honour of our King and Country the nâ—w almost forsaken virtues of our Ancestors and the good old Customes of England which should not like some rustie pieces of old neglected Arms be hung up in our Halls and now and then only talked of or like as if they were some race of Wolves come again to infâ—st us or our profits be hunted and persecuted but recalled revived and practised In which as a fidus Achatâ—s shall never be wanting the wel-wishes and endeavors of FABIAN PHILIPPS BY the Laws and Custome of England as well as of other Nations where Monarchy or the right way and order of Government hath any thing to do the King hath a Controll of Markets may regulate order the price rates of victuals houshold provisions and hinder it from being excessive As likewise may the Lords of Manors in their Leets the Sheriffs in their Tournes the Justices of the Kings Bench Justices of Peace and Justices of Assize at the Quarter-Sessions and Assizes by an authority derived from him Which when it was better observed then now made the Market Rates about the fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be if any thing at all but little different from her price or those Compositions for her houshold Provisions which by agreement made by the Justices of Peace of the severall Counties with the Offficers of her house were to be furnished according as the Counties were more or less distant from London the place of her Residence and the profits which they received thereby in the improvement of their Lands and selling their Commodities at greater rates unto others And was the cause besides the duty and obligation of it that the Kings Praeemption which should not be denyed as long as civility and good manners and the Fifth Commandement shall continue or be in use amongst us And the Royall Pourveyance warranted by the Lawes of God Nature and Nations aswell as by the Civil Law the universal and refined reason of the civilized part of the world and the Common Law of this Nation having dwelt here amongst us above the age of Methusaelah and as Retributions and Gratitudes in signe of subjection paid and allowed in other Nations by the Heathen and Savages as well as Christians were not in the right use of them untill our late Times of Rebellion and Confusion taken to be either a grievance or burden unto the people For that which besides the designes of the Levelling Party and such as were the professed Enemies of Monarchy and Majesty and the ill Impressions which they have cast into the minds of such who have too much believed them hath made them to seem that which they are not Hath been the Rack and Enhaunce of the Rents of Lands by the Nobility Gentry and Landlords The increase of Servants and Labourers wages and the high rates imposed by Tenants and Farmers upon victuals and houshold Provisions which if it were not for the pursuit of pride and vanity and the peoples racking of one another to maintain it might be afforded cheaper then it was in the 4 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth And as they are now raised to immoderate rates and prices do make a Desert in our Land of Canaan and a generall Enhaunce of all things in the midst of a plenty wherein every one is sure to be a gainer or saver but the King Who by the loss of his Praeemption and Pourveyance is made to be the only Sufferer and as to the Market rates in a worse condition
of the Kingdome 3. And there shall be an enhaunce of prices and Market-races which since the acquittall or laying down of the Pourveyance or Compositions for it are already about London and Westminster found to be at the least two pence in a shilling more then it was before which being a sixth part will when it shall be raised and made to be an ordinary rate through the adjacent Counties to London and Westminster make no inconsiderable burden or charge to the Inhabitants and a greater if either all or some part of that more thâ—n formerly raised price shall by necessity or imitation and the vast and excessive pride of most sorts of people diffuse and spread it self into all other parts of the Kingdome and a great deal more if those insana praetia unreasonable rates shall as they are most likely by the high rack of the Rents of Lands Servants and Laborers wages and all manner of Commodities which are sold either for the Belly or the Back or for necessity or pleasure creep and climb higher and higher untill pride and excess shall have made our heretofore more prudent and frugall England by too many of her Natives want of money for want of wit to be a Bankrupt Which may well be suspected when as experience the Mistress of Fools but the guide and direction of wiser people hath assured us that the price extorted from the King will make the Nobility pay the dearer and the rates which their example will enforce or entice the Gentry to pay will infect and prejudice the Marketings of the Common and buying part of the people as we have lately seen in the rates and prices of Horses not by reason of any exportation or scaâ—city manage or fitness for warre or extraordinary swiftness for running or races but by the careers of Prodigality Humour Affection or Fancy of too many of the Nobility or Gentry mounted from ten or twelve pounds price for a horse for a man of worship within thirty years last past to the ordinary rate of 20 30 40 or 50 l. and sometimes 100 l. which hath unnecessarily drawn some hundred thousand pounds sterling out of the purses of such who are but small friends to their own Estates in bidding too much and accustoming the Sellers to demand or insist upon such excessive and reasonless rates and prices 4. And by the want of Progresses when the King not having his Pourveyance or Compositions for them and Carriages as formerly shaâ—l not be so able as he should to make our Pool of Bethesda itinerant and visit the severall Parts of his Dominions either for his recreation or the better survey and inspection of the Government and his peoples grievances as King Alfred King Edgar and King Henry the first and all their Successors his Majesties Royall Progenitors were wont to do whereby to diffuse their comforts and graces with which many a Family and many a Town and Corporation have been blessed and bettered and otherwise would not have had an opportunity to obteyn them 5. When there shall be necessities and poverty put upon some hundreds of Families which were either his Majesties Servants or in relation unto them and upon many an Housekeeper in Westminster and the Neighbourhood of the Kings Residence who have had a great part of their subsistence by the influence of it 6. And the Peoples damage and losses shall likewise be heightned and increased by the many cravings and projects which the wanting or necessitous part of the Kings Court may trouble both him and his people withall 7. Or by the casting the King into importunate and irresistable necessities and forcing the Lyon to hunt and range the Fields and Forrests and prejudice the people more then otherwise he would in the quest and pursuit of what is but his own or to couch and lye down in his den and resolve to lay his paw upon what are his own rights and be less liberall in his favours 8. Or by denying him what is his own be for want of a lesser summe of money for defraying of necessaries a cause of raising Subsidies or Taxes which cannot be so equally or justly charged as to even and make them to be no more then the summe of money demanded and to be furnished 9. And by compassing and encircling their Sovereign with wants and pressures more then would otherwise be if he had either his own or a sufficient supply make themselves the efficient causes of what they compleyn of and by being stubborn stiffneck'd unquiet and disobedient instead of duty and retributions to a gracious King for the daily blessing of peace plenty protection pardons and multitudes of favours gifts and grants out-do the ungratefull Israelites in murmuring with Quails in our Mouths not in the Deserts of Arabia but a more plentifull Land then that which was said to flow with milk and honey And a cause also of increasing their own Taxes which are more many times the impositions by themselves upon themselves then impositions of their King and rendring themselves thereby as much guilty of folly as they that will not be diswaded from planting and sowing Weeds and Tares and will notwithstanding come weeping home from their expected better harvest for that their Carts are not pressed down with sheaves of Corne and Wheat and their labour was but to fool themselves All which and many more inconveniences losses and damages to the people by the Kings want of the Royall Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was the smallest and least chargeable part of an yearly thankfulness and oblation which ever was given to a King by a people would neither happen nor needs to be at all If they would but remember the days of old the kindness of the King and his Royall Progenitors and the chearfully heretofore paid Duties and retributions of their forefathers and take it for some of their happiness that they are not by God Almighties displeasure for their unthankfulness put in minde of their former miseries by any new adversities or made to keep an yearly Passeover with bitter Herbs And now that the Royal Revenue hath been so much impaired by a continual bounty unto many of themselves or their Ancestors and their supplyes of it doe fall very short of what was expected or intended and the Fifty thousand pounds per Annum intended as a Recompence for the Pourveyance or Compositions for them proves to be not only not a recompence sufficient but a meer nullity and if it had come up as high as it was supposed appears to be but a damage and a Canker or Gangreen eating up or taking away too much of the rest of the Kings Revenue Be sorry that it is so and make haste to returne again those little oblations unto their King when London and 12. or more adjacent Counties unto it do yearly gain 20 times more by the Residence of himself and his Courts of Justice then they doe amount unto and doe unto him in the easing
them by David unto Saul and not long after sending him into the Army to visit his Brethren commanded him to take an Ephah and ten loaves and carry them into the Camp unto his Brethren and ten Cheeses unto the Captains of their Thousand The worst of women the Witch of Endor made hast to kill her fat Calfe took flower and kneaded it baked unleavened bread and caused Saul and his Servants to eat The Moabites who were Davids Subjects after he was King sent him gifts pro pace ac tutela as gratifications for their peace and protection and continued and paid it unto the Kings of Israel untill after the Reign of Ahab King of Israel Shobi Machir and Barzillai in the midst of his afflictions by the Rebellion of his Son Absolom sent victualls and provisions to him and his Army the dutifull and honest-hearted Araunah would rather give him his Oxen to sacrifice then take mony for them the Sunamitish woman would in honour and respect unto Elisha the Prophet not only constrain him to eat bread but advised her Husband to make a little Chamber in the Wall and set for him there a Bed a Table and a Stool and a Candlestick to the end that when he passed that way he might turn in thither The Moabites having after the destruction of the Kingdome of Israel discontinued their Pourveyance were in the judgements denounced against them for their pride exhorted by the Prophet Isaiah to an obedience and to send the Lamb viz. that Pourveyance to the Ruler of the Land which was Ezechiah King of Juda the lawfull Heir of King David And the Children of Israel and Juda after a return from a long and a sorrowfull captivity could not when they bare burdens and wrought with one hand and held a weapon with the other in their building and repair of Jerusalem forget the custome of Pourveyance for the good Nehemiah their righteous Captain and Governour Which might induce the people of England to cover their faces with shame and blush through that thin-leafed Mask of a Recompence by the Excise supposed to be given in Exchange thereof when they can at the same time whilest they denyed it to the King believe that the Pensions and Payments in Universities Colleges Innes of Court Chancery for the honor of their Societies and defraying of charges ordinary or extraordinary The assistance or supports which the Lord Mayor of London the Companies or Guilds of Trades therein the Magistrates of every City Burrough or Corporation and Church-wardens of every Parish do by permission of him and his Laws exact and enforce for the credit or worship of their Societies and their maintenance and affairs one under another and one of another to be as legall as they are necessary And the dignified Clergie as Arch-Bishops Bishops Arch-Deacons Deans Prebends and Canons many of whom do enjoy Commendams and Prebends and yearly receive Pensions some of which were for superstitious uses Synodals Procurations money for Proxies Cathedratica Quarta's Episcopales Corredies or Entertainment-money Penticostalia Waxscot or Cyrick sceat which in some places was recompenced by the yearly Tribute of Hens or some other houshold provisions and in many places do receive the long since abolished Romescot or Peter-pence and many other Emoluments and the inferiour part of the Clergy their Mortuaries yearly Oblations and many other Profits and Free-will Offerings towards their Hospitalityes and Housekeeping And many of the Laity can think it reasonable by privileges of some Religious-houses whereof their Lands before they were granted unto them by the Kings Royall Progenitors were parcell to pay in many places no Tythes at all and in as many or more do claim and receive the benefit of a Modus decimandi or paying a small rate or proportion for them and in their own Leases and Grants not only in former ages but lately find it to be most for their benefit to reserve as a convenience for their housekeeping as their Ancestors or Predecessors formerly did their duties of work in Harvest or payment of Muttons and Poultry c. And can retain their Rights of Patronage and Advowsons take and receive Herriots which were gratuitae donationes domino suo datas ratione dominii reverentiae the gifts or remunerations of Tenants to their Lords in the reverence or respect which they do bear unto them after the rate of 4 or 5 l a Cow many times the only remaining substance of a sorrowfull Widow and Fatherless Children when the price of an Oxe was in the Reign of King Edward the First and many years after but 5 s. or an eighth or tenth part of it Reliefs and Chiefage which Cowell understands to be pecuniae annuò datae potentiori tutelae patrociniique gratiae and the Tolls in Fairs and Markets by his Grants or by Prescription or allowance which do in yearly profit twice or thrice over exceed the charge of the Counties or Cities of the Kingdome towards the Pourveyance or Provision of the King and his Houshold and the Owners of above three thousand and eight hundred Impropriations which originally were designed for hospitality can require and receive Pensions Synodals Procurations Proxie-money and Waxscot money And very many of the Laity yearly demand and receive Romescot Peter pence or Chimney-money of their Tenants in some Manors amounting unto a considerable value which notwithstanding that by the Statute of 25 H. 8. ca. 21. it be forbidden under severe penalties to be paid any more to the Popes use have since either by ignorance of their Tenants or a custome of paying it to the Lords of such Manors or their Stewards or Bayliffs been collected or gathered to the use of the Lords of those Manors be very industrious in the enforcing the payment of Street-gavel which in the Reign of King Edward the First was claimed by the Lord of the Manour of Cholmton in the County of Sussex for every Tenants going out of the Manor or returning unto it and in many or some of their Manors do receive Quit-rents of their Tenants for Bordland or provisions of victuals for their houses Drofland for driving their Cattle to Fairs and Markets Berland carrying provision of victuals upon the removall of the Lord of the Manor or his Steward Potura drinklan or Scot Ale a Contribution of Tenants towards a Potation drink or an Ale provided to entertain the Lord or his Steward those charges being now defrayed by the Lords of the Manors Cart-silver Ward-penies and Hoke-Tuesday mony for a liberty probably of giving their Tenants or Bond-men leave to celebrate that day wherein the English did every where slay the Domineering Gavel-Corn Gavel-Malt Rent-honey Oate-Gavel or Rent Oates Woodlede for carrying home the Lords wood Hidage or an Arbitrary Tax imposed upon every Hide of their Tenants Lands afterwards turned into an yearly payment Gavel-Foder for Litter Hay and Provender for
his Crown Lands turned from small and easie old-fashion'd Reserved Rents upon Leases for Lives or years into Estates of Inheritance and very many Liberties as Fishings Free-Warrens Court-Leets Court-Barons Eschetes Felons Fugitives and Outlaws Goods Deodands Forfeitures Waiss Estraies Fines Amerciaments retorn and execution of Writs and in some Manors a liberty of receiving to their own use Fines for licenses of concord or agreement upon the making of Conveyances and Post-Fines upon Fines leavied in the Kings Courts Profits of the year day and wast and all Fines Issues Amerciaments returned set or imposed upon any of their Tenants in any of the Kings Courts or by any Justices of Assize or of the Peace With many other Franchises Liberties and Participations of his Regality which they do now enjoy tanquam Reguli as little Kings in their several Estates and Dominions in many of them more by claim and prescription allowed by the favour and indulgence of the King and his Royal Progenitors and Predecessors Kings and Queens of of this Nation unto them and their Posterities then by any any Grants they can shew for it very much exceeding in yearly profit and conâ—ent the small charges which they have used to have been at for the Pourveyance or Provisions for the Kings Houshold Take his Fee-farme Rents which do amount unto above threescore thousand pounds per annum but according to their first and primitive small reservation though the Lands thereof be now improved and raised in some a ten and in others a twelve to one moâ—e then they were then accompted to be either in the intentions of the Donors or Donees and many other his Fee-Farmes of some casuall Profits and Revenues granted to Cities and Corporations which do now ten to one exceed what they were when they were first granted Grant and confirme to the Vulgus or Common people many great immunities and Priviledges as Assart Lands and permit them to enjoy in his own Lands and Revenue large Common of Pasture and Common of Estovers and Turbary in his Forrests and Chaces and protect from oppression in that which are holden of their Mesne Lords their Copihold Lands Customes and Estates which being at first but temporarily permitted and allowed patientia charitate in quoddam jus transierunt are now by an accustomed and continued charity taken to be a kind of Tenant Right and Inheritance Grants and permits many Charters of Liberties Privileges and Freedoms to the Cities Boroughs and Towns Corporate of England and Wales and to the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of London all Issues Fines and Amerciaments retâ—rned and imposed upon them in any of the Kings Cours freedome from payment of Tolls and Lastage in their way of an universall and diffused Trade in all places of England and for a small Fee Farme Rent of Fifty pounds per annum for the Kings Tolls at Queen-Hithe Billingsgate and other places in the City of London accepted in the Reign of King Henry the Third suffers them to have and receive in specie or mony towards their own Pourveyance as much as would goe a good way in his Allows the Tenants in antient Demesn their Exemptions from the payment of Toll for their Houshold Provisions which in the opinion of Sir Edward Coke was at the first in regard of their helping to furnish the Kings houshold Provisions and suffers the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the Colleges and Halls therein Colleges of Winchester and Eaton and the Reâ—ients in the Cinque Ports and Rumney Marsh to enjoy a Freedom from Subsidies Who together with all the people of England may by the Accompt of benefits received by and from him and his Royall Progenitors and Predecessors know better how to value them if they had not received them and if he should but retire himself into himself and withdraw his bounties from us Or take his Customes and Imposts inward and outward Reliefs Ayds Subsidies Fifteens Tenths and First-fruits Profits of his Seals Pâ—ae-fines Post-fines Licences and Pardons for alienation of Lands Fines upon Foâ—medons and reall Actions at the full value and rate which the Law will allow and the rise of money might perswade him unto or take all occasions to invade or clip the peoples Liberties and Privileges as they do his Or seise and take advantage of the forfeitures of our sufficiently misused Fairs and Markets which without the many inconveniences of Barrage Billets peages or Tolls taken at many places as they pass thither as the people of France and our Fashion makers are tormented with do yield and save the people yearly in that which otherwise would be lost some hundred of thousands pounds per annum or should withdraw his favours and countenance from the Trade which our Merchants have into forreign Parts since the Reign of Queen Mary by the benefits and blessings of the Leagues and Alliances of him his Royall Progenitors made with forreign Princes continued with a great yearly charge of Embassadours Ordinary and Extraordinary sent and received and render it to be no no more then it was in the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when the difference of the gain of forreign Trade and Merchandize betwixt the little which was then and that which is now by reason of the East-Indie Turkie Muscovie Ligorne and East-land Trades and our many flourishing American Plantations would appear to be some millions sterling money in a year And were notwithstanding never so gratefull to our King for it as the English Merchants of Calais were whilst King Edward the Third caused the Staple of Wool to be kept there who so ordered the matter as the King spent nothing upon Souldiers in defence of the Town which was wont to cost him eight thousand pounds per annum and the Mayor of that Town could in Anno 51 of the Reign of that King furnish the Captain of the Town upon any Rode to be made with one hundred Bill-men and two hundred Archers of Merchants and their Servants without any wages Or if the Peoples Liberties acquired by the munificence and Indulgence of our Kings since the making and confirming of our Magna Charta in the ninth year of the Reign of King Henry the Third now 437 years ago when they took it to be for their good as well as the Kings to give him a Fifteenth part of all their Moveables not by a conniving and unequall but a more real and impartiall Taxation in recompence and as a thankfull Retribution for their Liberties then granted and confirmed which are now as many again or do farre exâ—ed them were buâ— justly valueâ— or if the benefits accrewed unto forreign Merchants or those of our own Nation by the Charâ—a Mercatoria granted by King Edward the First in the 31 year of his Reign to the Meâ—chants Strangers and confirmed by Act of Paâ—liament in Anno 27 Ed. 3. for the releasing of an antient Custome and Duty to the Kings
Germany and other Kingdomes and Principalities of Christendome the Republique of Venice and that Corporation of Kings the States of Holland and the united Provinces greater Improvements of Lands and prices for the fruits of the Earth then former ages ever saw or attained unto ten to one more Cattel Sheep Swine and Poultry fed and sold in England then formerly a freedome from the Popes and Romes former and many daily heavy Taxations carrying away much of the Revenues thereof the universality of the people 10 or 20 times richer in moveables and household Furniture then ever their Forefathers were every man of 10 or 20 l. Land per annum now having one if not many pieces of Plate in his house heretofore not to be found but in the houses of the Nobility or persons of great quality many Alehouse-keepers a piece of Plate if not as many as his occasions call for instead of Black poâ—s every Artizan a piece or more of Plate and many of the richer sort of Citizens Merchants and Retayloâ—s do take themselves to be disparaged the Sons of contempt if they have not half and others almost all their Table-service in Silver Plate their Dyning Rooms and Lodging Chambers richly hung with Tapestry of 30 40 or 60 l. a suit too many of their Wives hung with Pearl Neck-laces Diamond Lockets and the most costly sort of Jewels and little Tablets of their Husbands Pictures richly enameld or set in gold at the charge of 25 or 20 l. a piece to hang at the outside of their hearts and some of the retailing part of them think they come to farre behind their betters if they have not a kind of Sâ—ate or Carpets to spread within their Chambers or Apartments or shall not be enough talked of or looked upon if they have not an Indian Foot-boy with a Coller of Silver about his neck to attend them and their delicacies and wantonness better attended then the afterwards destroyed and vagabond Jews ever had when the Almighty sent his Prophets to preach and inveigh against their excessive pride and wickedness a greater by many degrees more then heretofore increase of Trade untill our long and accursed Rebellion spoyled it more money put by Countrymen and such as were not Traders to Interest and Usury which may shew how great an overplus many have beyond their necessary expences then former ages were acquainted with as much Wood and Timber sold in our late times of prodigality as would have bought the Fee-simple and Inheritance of all or the greatest part of the Lands of the Kingdome many Rivers made navigable and Havens repaired the loss of Cattle and damage by Inundations and some unruly Rivers prevented by several Statutes oâ— Commissions of Sewers Depopulations prohibited many an unjust Title in concealed Lands made good after sixty years quiet possession Interest for money lent reduced to a lower rate then formerly and Brocage forbidden divers Statutes restraining Aliens not being denâ—zend to Trade or keep Shops the bringing of silver Bullion into England by our Merchants encouraged transportation of Gold and Silver prohibited Merchants of Ireland and Aliens ordained to employ their moneys received in England upon the Commodities thereof many great Factories and Trades erected and encouraged the Lands of Wales greatly improved and freedome formerly denyed had of Trade and Commerce with them the Marches of Wales secured from the Incursions of the Welch and the Northern Counties from those of the Scots abundance of Markets and Fairs granted more then formerly great store of Cattle brought in yearly from Ireland and Scotland and many a good and beneficiall Law and Act of Parliament made to remedy the peoples grievances and better enabling them to performe those very ancient and legall duties of Pourveyances or Compositions for them Which may with us be understood to be the more reasonable when the Pourveyance or Compositions for them in England if they did yearly charge the people or amount unto as they did not fifty or sixty five thousand pounds per annum or thereabouts did not yearly draw out of their Puâ—ses or Estates so much as that which is yearly laid out in their buying of Babies Hobby-horses and Toyes for their Children to spoyl as well as to play withall or in the yearly charge of the Counties in the amending of the High-wayes Treatments given to Harvest folk Expences of an Harvest Goose or Seed-Cake given to their Plowmen and keeping a Wake or Parish Feast every year or the monies which the good women in every Parish and County do gladly rid themselves of in their Gossipings at the Birth of their Neighbours Children and many other most triviall chearfull and pleasing disbursements and nothing near so much as this last years excess in the wearing of Perrukes or Periwigs some at three pounds others at five or ten pounds price which Clerks and the smallest size of Tradesmen and Journymen Apprentices Baâ—beâ—s and Vintners boys must of necessity have to hide their heads and little wit is Or in the womens long needless Trains or unreasonable length of their Gowns every Lady or Gentlewoman or many ridiculous proud Citizens Wives being certainly not Dutchesses or Countesses or allowed to have their Trains carried up to shew the length of their vanities and informe the Common people who do with abhorrence behold them how much better it would be to bestow that ten or twenty pounds per annum so foolishly expended upon the Poor in charity and almes deeds then to make their tails the Beesoms or Deputy-Scavengers of the streets or places where they walk or the mony which hath been lately expended in altering or putting too many of the Common people into the low crowned little Hats or flat Caps to cover the folly of every Absalom or Inhabitant in a hideous bush of hair or Periwig or their adorning them with as many Ribbons as the vanities they are guilty of or in the yearly or never murmured at charges or expences of almost all sorts of people as well in the Countries as Cities in the exchanging or following of Fashions as if they were to make all the hast possible they could to purchase them lest there should not be fools enough in the Nation or that the ridiculous French Ape should not have enough to be of his Livery or Retinue And as to the severall kinds of all those severall particulars would make the foot of the Accompt to be a great deal more then that of the Pourveyance or Compositions for them which was so easie and petit as in most of the Counties of England it was many times not singly rated or assessed but was joyned with some other Assesse And in Kent where ten or twenty times more being gained by the Kings residence at Westminster more was paid then in any one County of England was so little felt and regarded as a Tenant paying One hundred pounds rent per annum for his Land did not think it worth his care
to reckon it to his Landlord and demand an allowance for it The Counties and Places which did pay most towards the furnishing of the Kings Household provisions being those which abound most with them and were the greatest gainers by their neighbourhood to the constant residence of the King and his Courts of Justice And those which were more remote had but little charged upon them as all the 13 Shires of Wales but three hundred sixty pounds per annum Herefordshire One hundred eighty pounds per annum and that large County of York as big as three others but four hundred ninty five pounds per annum And may tell us how irrationall and uneven it will be for the people of England to rank with or above the care of their souls and Religion their endeavours to preserve their Liberties Customes and Privileges some of which are hard and severe enough as the forfeiture of the Widows Estates for life in their deceased Husbands Copyhold Estates of Inheritance for marrying a second Husband unless they shall come into the Court Baron of the Lord of the Manor riding upon a Black Ram and acknowledge such a fault committed or the custome of the Manor of Balshale in the County of Warwick where the Lord of the Manor was to divide the Goods and personall Estate of the deceased with his Wife and Children the custome of the Manor of Brails in the same County not to marry their Daughters or to make their Sons Priests without licence of the Lord of the Manor or of the Manor of Brede in the County of Sussex where the Widows are not to be endowed or have dower of any of the Lands of their first Husband if they shall marry again The custome of some Manors that the Copiholder shall not sell his Lands unto a Stranger untill he shall have first offered it unto the next of Kin or Neighbour ab oriente solis dwelling on the East side of him who giving as much as others would do for it are to have it or where the Copiholder is to give his Lord a certain summe of money towards his charges in the time of Warre or to forfeit his land if summoned unto the Lords Court doth wilfully make default or that the Lord or Lady of the Manor of Coveny in the County of Cambridge should have for every Fornication or Adultery committed in the Manor a Lecherwyte or penalty of 5 s. and 2 d. for selling a Hog without licence of the Lord of that Manor and five shillings for a Licence for any one of the Tenants Daughters to be married And yet do all they can to infringe and abolish those iust ancient and legall Rights and Privileges of the Kings which should protect and defend them and theirs and being rationabilia legitimè praescripta most reasonably and lawfully prescribed ought to be inviolabilia quia nec divino juri nec legibus naturae Gentium sive municipalibus contradicunt inviolable when they contradict not the Laws of God Nature and Nations and the Laws of the Land as if all that is to be found in our Laws and reasonable Customes should be only to protect the peoples Rights and Liberties and the inferiour Members of the Body Politique and to diminish and abrogate that of the Kings the superiour more noble and therefore the more to be respected or as if the power of a Prince should be the better when it is weakest a blind or decrepit pennyless Captain or Generall more usefull for their Warres then a Sampson a David or a Solomon as full of Riches as Wâ—sdome and a Wooden Sword more for that purpose then one of Iron and Steel or that of Goliah How unjust as well as unreasonable it would be for the People of England to rack and raise the Rents and rates of their Lands and Commodities increase their own Revenues and prices of victuals and houshold provisions five or six to one more then it was when the Compositions for the Pourveyance was agreed upon in the third or fourth year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and lay the burden thereof only upon the King make him to be as an Amorite or Stranger in our Israel and his own dominions paying an enhaunced and oppressing Rate and Interest for food and provisions for himself and his houshold and to receive his rents and other monies due unto him after the old rate and buy at the new take little more then four pence instead of a shilling in every summe which is paid him and pay twelve pence for every groats worth which he hath occasion to buy and drive or inforce him by buying all by the penny and being left to the mercy of the Sellers to such a prejudiciall necessity or custome as would certainly undoe and ruine all the Nobility Gentry Clergy Tradesmen Mechanicks and People of England if they should but imitate him And would without the help of our Sâ—â—taries or Levellers have ere now destroyed and ruined the two famous Universities of Oxford and Cambridge those great Lights and Fountains of Learning in our Nation and have brought their Towring Colledges Halls and glorious Buildings into their Rubbidge or little more then a story to talk of as Travellers sometimes do of the heretofore University or Publique School of Stamford if the Act of Parliament in 18 Eliz had not better provided for them and ordained that a third part of the rents of the Lands belonging unto them should be for ever reserved and paid in Corn Malt and other Provisions at their election Or now to deny it him when as if he or his Father or Royall Progenitors could have foreseen any dislike or complaining of such an ancient and unquestionable Right of the Crown he or they might by a restraint of their Bounties and Indulgencies have made themselves not only savers but gainers by it or reserved more then that in their multituds of Grants and Fee-Farme Rents And did never as Cromwell that dissembling and devouring Hiena or Wolfe of the Evening dig or teare up by the roots as many of our Laws and Liberties as he could upon a pretence of defending and protecting them call our Magna Charta in the worst Latin that ever Brewer or Englishman spake Magna Fartae imprison the Lawyers that pleaded for the Peoples liberties and was so little sensible of their being tired or impoverished with Taxes as he could when he was lieutenant Generall of the Army of Reforming Harpies give some Gentlemen of the County of Bedford who complained of their heavy burdens and the poverty of that County no better an answer or ease then that he would never believe they were unable to pay Taxes as long as they could whistle when they did drive their Plows and Carts Nor did after the horrid Murder of his Father and his own Exile and sufferings by an almost twenty years Rebellion of the greatest part of his Subjects grown rich with the plunder and spoyl of
perpetual Almes 22 Acres of Land and half of a Marâ—e-pit to pray for the souls of his Lord King Henry and of him and his Wife And as Geffrey de Clintoâ— did in the Reign of King Henry the Third and William de Whaplode in or about the 27 th year of the Reign of King Henry the Sixth should be so willing to un-English themselves and by a loathsome and ugly ingratitude and for the saving sparing of so inconsiderable an yearly charge as their Oblations in the Royal Pourveyance or Compositions for them amounted unto make us to be every day more and more a by-word reproch and scorn to the Nations round about us and entail upon us those dishonors mischiefs inconveniences damages and accumulations of evils which may sooner be foreseen and prevented then remedied And to fasten it on and be very sure not to fail of it will be content so as with the rich man in the Gospel they may fare diliciously live wantonly and give entertainment to all their excesses of pride and vanity to make themselves slaves to sin and fool away their happiness and if Lazarus be after his death carried with Angels into Abrahams bosome it shall never trouble them untill death and the fate of mortality shall bring them to be at leisure to think better of it Can without any remorse of conscience fear of Hell honor and welfare of their Nation care of Heaven after ages or posterity see the piety good old virtues Customes and Manners of England murdered and do all that they can to extirp and destroy them root and branch And whilst too many of our Gentry can leave the Jack-daws to be Stewards of their formerly better employed stately well-built houses in the Country bring their Wives and Children to London and make some little Lodgings or houâ—es there to be their residence to learn what vices are most in fashion spend fifty or one hundred pounds at a time in a Treatment or Tavern at London and be cheated and cozened an half or a third part in the reckoning make a Feast at their Lodgings or Houses enough to puzle Lucullus or Vitellius Cooks or Professors in the Art of Gluttony at three or five hundred pounds charges have their Oleo's Haut gousts Ambiges costly Gallimauphries or Hotch potches laid altogether in a dish and that dish so big as the door must needs be taken off the hinges to make a stately passage to bring it in and after some hours spent in heightning and pleasing their appetites and adoring Bacchus their drunken Diety can let some of their Mortgaged Mannors and Lands run about the streets by day and night in Coaches with dores and glass Windows and be at the yearly charges of maintaining a couple or more of Coach-horses as much fatted and pampered more then needs to be as would provide more then a yoke or two of fat Oxen to kill at Christmas when they shall be so good as to observe such Christian Festivals and instead of four or six proper serving men as their old hospitable Grandâ—ires had in constant pay or salary to attend or fight for them upon no Tavern or Alehouse â—ray or Quarrels but just occasions have only one or two Foot-boyes dressed up like some ridiculous Antiques to wait upon the Coach by getting up before or behind it Can see virtue and honestly only laid up in Books and Speculations and be read as Romances and things impracticable truth reason and conscience greatly talked of and a part of almost every mans daily pretences but used as vagabonds incertilaris without any habitations and very little to be seen but the names of them made use of as the Gibeonites did their mouldy bread old shoes and garments only for the people to cozen and cheat one another Trade the great Diana of our Ephesus by a strange abuse of it come to be the greatest cheat oppression and tyranny of the Nation and Gods providence vouched for their thriving by it the numbers of the poor and oppressed daily multiplyed priâ—e knavery cheating and complement those termini convertibiles not mercy and truth kissing each other and making a League to cozen and deceive all such as are not of their trim society And whilst they are chanting to the sound of the viols drinking wine in Boules and stretching themselves upon their Couches can without any brotherly kindness or compassion behold the sighing of the poor and needy the widows and the fatherless the misery of multitudes and those that have none to help them will not deal their bread to the hungry nor bring the poor which are cast out into their houses will not cover the naked but hide themselves from their own flesh will not undo the heavy burdens nor let the oppressed go free But do all that they can not only to banish the Kings hospitality and his accustomed Royalties and magnificence from his Court and Palaces and as if he and his Servants were in a continual â—it of a fever enforce them by withholding his Pourveyance or Compositions for them whilst they themselves do feast and revel in their own houses to a thinne and sparing diet and as to many of them none at all but to destroy the greatest and best part of the Hospitality of the Nation which was wont to make those suâ—ves potentes benificentiae nexus quibus seu compedibus animi illigâ—ntur those gratefull as Marsellaer very well observeth impressions of benefits which do as it were charme and oblige the minds and affections of mankind A custome so antient as it was no strangerâ— to Abraham the friend of God when he sitting in his Tent dore in the Plains of Mamre invited the three then unknown Angels and feasted them nor to the Father of the Excellent meek and humble Rebecca when as Abrahams Servant or Embassadour was so well as he was enterteyned before it was known from whence he came and what his message was and which the Jews ever after were so unwilling to part with as the good Nehemiah many ages after could in his then no great plenty or felicity keep a great house hospitality and many tables aswell for the Heathen as 150 of the Jews and Rulers and hath been justly accompted to be such a religious duty as St. Paul allowed of the Agapes love or neighbourly Feasts and exhorted the Hebrews to let broâ—therly love continue and not to be forgetfull to entertain strangers for thereby some meaning their old father Abraham have unawares entertained Angels And being the love and delight of the Almighty that gave us all good things which we possesse was also the Treasury and keeper of the peoples love and as much as concerned peace and good will unto men a part of the blessed song of the Angels at the Birth of our Redeemer and in our Ancestors dayes was best of all supported by a generous and well ordered frugality and by the old Romans held to be